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Jean Luo
Our goal is to empower and uplift the lives of 1 billion women.
Courtney Johnson
We have so much inequity in our world and I feel like the one thing that I can help people with is un gatekeeping information.
Sheree Brooke
If no one knows all the great work that you're doing, it's really hard to get that promotion, to get that opportunity.
Jean Luo
A lot of times people are like, how did you grow so fast in just a year and a half? Like, that's insane. It's because we have almost like no ego.
Courtney Johnson
Welcome to Built in Public. I am your host, Courtney Johnson. I've been a full time content creator and a personal brand strategist for seven years and I really built my career sharing the process, not just the outcomes of personal brand. Built in Public is about what it actually looks like to build a brand, a business, and to build real leverage in the creator economy. We're talking strategy, systems, audience growth, monetization, and that uncomfortable middle ground between. I have an idea and this is actually working. I'll be sharing what I'm testing, what's working, what's not, and I'm going to be bringing on people who are building their careers and companies out loud too. If you want honest conversations, practical insight and zero bs, you are in the right place. Let's build in public. Welcome back to Built in Public. I am really excited about today's conversation because first of all, we are speaking to some of the biggest podcast hosts in the entire world and our conversation really speaks to directly where our show is headed. Sheree and Jean are the hosts of Tiger Sisters Podcast, a top business podcast that they built in under two years. Guys, this is so crazy. They were actually number one on the podcast charts for a couple of weeks. Above Joe Rogan, above Mel Robbins, above all of those. They're crazy. Built this so quickly, so intentionally, and they already succeeded in a very traditional work environment, MBAs, corporate environment, consulting, finance. And instead of keeping that knowledge gated, they chose to build personal brands and share it publicly with a goal of democratizing access to career information, to money information, to mindset information. And today we're talking about why content creation has become such a powerful vehicle for impact, for credibility, and for real lever. My book, Career Cheat Codes comes out on April 14th and pre orders are now open. I'm so excited. If you have ever gotten value from any of my free content from listening to this podcast, whether that be YouTube, Spotify, my posts, my free trainings and masterclasses and webinars, anything I've shared online pre ordering the book is one of the biggest ways to help this mission of un. Gatekeeping the gatecap, and this mission of giving people all of the autonomy that they need in order to create their dream in their life. Preordering the book is just the biggest way to help these ideas reach beyond this audience and this community. Pre orders actually don't count as, like, early sales. They actually signal demand to retailers. So, like, pre orders ride or what's riding on retailers wanting to carry the book. So it plays a really, really big role in how widely the book is seen once it launches. So this book is really the most complete version of what I've been aiming to teach for years. You know, how to build leverage, how to understand the real rules of the game, how to understand what's gate ke, how to build your personal brand and create career mobility on your own terms. Guys, I'm so excited about this book. Like, it has been such a journey and I packed as much value as I possibly can to transform your career. And if somebody else comes to mind, like a friend, a sibling, a mentee, a coworker who's navigating their career right now, it could also be a really meaningful gift. You can pre order career cheat codes. We're going to give a link in the show. Notes would really, really appreciate it, and I know you're just gonna love it. Welcome, y'. All.
Jean Luo
Hi.
Courtney Johnson
I'm so happy to be here. So happy to be in la. Yay. Guys, we have so much to chat about. And what I find really interesting about y', all, compared to some of the other people I've talked to in Personal Brand, is you guys come from a very traditional path. You know, the Ivy League school, the finance, the consulting. And you've built such incredible, powerful and impactful personal. And, you know, I work with a lot of different types of people that want to build their personal brands. And typically when I see people come from a more traditional path, they say, oh, this being an influencer is it's cringe or it's not. Like, I don't know, like, it's not posh, It's a little bit low brow. Right. And I'm curious, as you guys have built your personal brands, was there that, what are people gonna think of me? What is my boss gonna think of me? What is my old LinkedIn connections from college or finance going to think of me?
Sheree Brooke
Yeah, I think a lot of people who come from the traditional corporate route have this hurdle to overcome because, you know, your entire professional connection base is on LinkedIn and it can be really scary to post when you feel like everyone is looking at you and judging what you're doing. I would say most of the people, most of our friends are former colleagues, have this fear of being judged. But I think it is the number one thing that holds people back is like, what do people think of me? So I think the best way to overcome this hurdle, especially if you come from the corporate traditional background and the content you put out is, you know, helping other people is really figuring out, like, how do I create something of value that's helping others and what do I know? What information do I have that other people don't have right now? And how can I focus on creating value for others in that way? You're not really focused on what others think of you, but the value that you're creating.
Jean Luo
So. So it's kind of like thinking about who is my audience. Right. So for us, the content that we create isn't necessarily for some of our co workers or our former co workers, because they already know a lot of that information, but a lot of the information we're, we're putting out there, I would say like 99% of people are not coming across that information in their day to day. It's really like sort of gate kept or like kind of like ivory tower type stuff. And so we're really thinking about like, who is our audience and why are we creating this content? And that kind of helps you get over the hump of being like, oh, this is really cringe, this is really embarrassing. And like, for me, I think Sheree is sort of zillennial Gen Z. I'm millennial, squarely millennial. So I feel like millennials have even more of this sort of embarrassment around it because we're not as used to putting ourselves out there as Gen Z is, because they kind of grew up with it more.
Sheree Brooke
So.
Jean Luo
So I think like, thinking about your audience is what really helps.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Sheree Brooke
And I guess the last thing I'll say is that, like, your fear of looking cringe, being cringe, is just holding you back from whatever you want to do, whether it's posting on LinkedIn or, you know, pursuing the career or the path that you actually want to do.
Jean Luo
My sort of experience of it is that Sheree has been an influencer creator for a long time now, like five, six years. And for me, I was always in the background of that. I was working at my corporate job at Snapchat, and I was actually originally extremely private. So, like, even when I was occasionally in her content in like the background or something. She would refer to me as her friend. She, like, never. We never.
Sheree Brooke
I wanted to respect your privacy. Yeah, you know, like, I didn't want to blow up your spot.
Jean Luo
You really never even revealed that I was her sister. But it was over the course of that five to six years that I was really seeing all of the messages that she was getting. Like, every single day, every single week, people would write into her and she would have DMs that were saying, like, hey, like, I just wanted to let you know, Cherie, that. That you changed my life. Like, I never knew what product management was until I followed you and I saw your content. I finally applied for a product management job. I got it. Now I'm moving across the country to San Francisco. My life has totally changed. So I think it was, like seeing all of that feedback from her that I was like, oh, it is so worthwhile to do this. To put yourself out there, even if you think it's embarrassing. This is really helping other people.
Courtney Johnson
So what was your perception before you started seeing that messages? Was it just like, oh, my sister is doing these fun, silly videos and she helping people? Like, what? What did you think before you saw, like, oh, my God, this can really make an impact.
Jean Luo
Yeah, I think. I mean, I was always proud of her for putting herself out there. And in a way, I feel like I was sort of encouraging her because it was something I couldn't do myself. You know, like, I was too embarrassed to put myself out there, but she wasn't. So I was really encouraging her to do it. And I think, like, through seeing all of the positive outcome and seeing how many people she was helping at such a broad scale, that's what gave the confidence and the conviction to be like, you know what? I am going to leave my corporate job, my entire corporate life of 15 plus years to start Tiger Sisters with Sheree. So that was a really big decision. But it was after, you know, seeing all that she had done that I was like, this is worth dedicating my life to.
Courtney Johnson
Wow, that's so powerful. So it wasn't even a slow burn. It was like, I'm quitting one day, we're starting the next day.
Sheree Brooke
Well, I would say it was a slow burn in the sense of Jean, like, watching my content over the years and seeing how it would evolve and how I was helping people. But the timing wise, like, it was after I graduated from Stanford's business school In June of 2024, we moved in together maybe like a week after my graduation. We knew we Always wanted to work together, didn't know in what capacity, but at this point Jean was on a sabbatical from work and timing wise we're like, it's kind of now or never if like we want to work together, do something entrepreneurial. This is the point where like I, I don't have a, I didn't interview for any like real jobs, real office jobs. And so, you know, we gotta run full speed at a thing that we have conviction in. We're betting on ourselves and we gotta try it now. And it might not work out, but we need to try it.
Courtney Johnson
Sheree, in the early days, what was your very first post? Your very first like, okay, I'm finally going to do this. What made that flip switch for you?
Sheree Brooke
Yeah, so I think it was during 2020. I was posting a lot of like random content, just exploring tikt right in the content creation, doing dances and lip syncs. And it was during the pandemic and everyone was like sad and making cat videos. And so I jumped on that. But you know, after making a few of those videos, the one video that really took off for me, I think this was in June of 2020 where I posted a video that was a little bit more educational than my dance videos. I talked about my undergraduate computer science classes and I was like, you know, this class was really helpful. Now that I'm working in tech databases, I use those concepts every day. Compute science theory, not that helpful. It's not very practical for what I do in tech. And that video after I posted it got way more comments likes and like follow up questions from people who are students. They're like, I'm thinking about taking this class, like what do you think? Or what is the next class in the series? And I was like, wait a second, my cat videos do not pop off. But I have some, you know, insight or some education that other people don't have that I can share. And so it was that video that I was like, let me do something, let me try to do something more meaningful with the like gate kept information that I have the privilege and the access to know. And then from there it was educational videos not only about my undergraduate experience, but then my experience working in tech, a very male dominated field and how do people break into tech? And then my content has evolved since then, being at Stanford again, kind of breaking open the gate cap institutions of like business school, MBAs and these like top tier programs.
Jean Luo
I, I will add that as Shuri's longtime fan, I will say the other thing you didn't Mention that I think is your special sauce.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Jean Luo
Is that when you did that, when you did that TikTok about the computer science classes at Columbia, she did it to, like, a meme. It was to like.
Sheree Brooke
It was a Hannah Montana song.
Jean Luo
Yeah, yeah. Where she was like, how does it go?
Courtney Johnson
It's like, ooh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Sheree Brooke
Like, it was like all these, like, you know, Hannah Mont songs, and it
Jean Luo
was like reviewing all the different classes.
Courtney Johnson
So I did like 1 to 10,
Sheree Brooke
like, ranking the classes, but I took an existing trend and then applied it to something that was very cherie, and then it made a lot more sense on social media. And I think that's your secret sauce,
Jean Luo
is that she's always been able to present this really kind of like, dense, almost like complicated content in a very fun and entertaining and, like, grockable way. And that's why people have always loved your content.
Sheree Brooke
Thanks, sis.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah, What I think is really interesting about that is instead of going into content creation, saying, this is my niche, this is what I'm choosing. This is my three pillar strategy. You're like, I'm just having fun. I'm seeing what my audience is resonating with. And you really took that feedback with the user feedback from your audience of like, wow, they want to learn more about education, they want to learn more about breaking into tech. And you leaned into that. I think that a mistake that I see creators make is they start saying, I can only talk about fitness, and that's all I'm going to talk about. And I can't talk about anything else. Meanwhile, there might be this other thing over there that's really their zone of genius. So I'm curious, in the podcast, you guys feel like you have a similar, like, user experience loop where you're seeing what's resonating?
Sheree Brooke
Yeah, absolutely. So both of our backgrounds, like you mentioned in the beginning, is from the corporate world. We work in the tech world. And so much of, I guess our DNA is built in the experimentation, the iteration. All of those frameworks that we learned while working in tech, we apply to Tiger Sisters. And so there is that, like, feedback loop. Right? In. In tech, we work with user researchers where we invite, like, users to come in, we ask them questions. We're like, how is this working for you? What's not working for you? And we do that all the time for Tiger Sisters. Like, I run polls on Instagram, like, what do you want us to talk about? We run polls on Spotify and also we, like, scrape through all of those. We read through all the Comments and figure out, like, what are themes that emerge and what's resonating with people. What's not resonating with people.
Jean Luo
Yeah. And to add to that, I. That our approach in general one is super experimental, very, like, product management based. And so a lot of times people are like, how did you grow so fast in just a year and a half? Like, that's insane. It's because we have almost, like, no ego when it comes to different ideas. Like, we have a million different ideas and we'll try them all out. If something doesn't work, we're like, okay, that didn't work onto the next thing. So I think it's that combination, plus the fact that we kind of have been approaching building Tiger Sisters, which is like a media and commerce company, but we've been approaching it as building a tech startup because that's what we know, that's our background. So I think it's like that kind of intersection of those two things that have helped us grow really quickly. And also the fact that we are so interactive with our community, I think that's also helpful because it's almost like our community is our, like, co producers of Tiger Sisters.
Courtney Johnson
Wow. Yeah. The ego part is really important because a lot of our listeners, they're starting to build their personal brands. And I think when you're new or intermediate in your personal brand, if you have a week where everything flops, if you get a really mean comment, if you are discouraged in some way, it can really lead to a spiral. So what I'm hearing for y' all is the advice of the audience is drop the ego. You get to look at everything as data, not having emotion attached to it. But this is working. This isn't. We're gonna make informed decisions from this data rather than, oh, my God, I'm so. I mean, you can be so happy and great, right? So happy and great. This is working. But on the other end, if you're not having some sort of, like, stoicism data mind, you're gonna. If something doesn't work, you're gonna be like, I'm a piece of. I suck. Right?
Sheree Brooke
Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Sheree Brooke
I think the ego part also plays into how we work with each other. It's like Gene said, we have so many ideas, we're brainstorming them constantly. But, like, sometimes it's just like, how do you know if something is a good idea or it's not. Not. Okay, let's put it to the test. And, like, you know, if we have, like a thumbnail or, like, a title idea, and we're like, let's a B test it, See how it performs with people's, you know, click through rates and what they're enjoying, what they're not, and then we can go from there. But in that way, it's not really like, my creative idea is better than yours. We're like, let's put it to the test and see what happens.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Jean Luo
I also. I love the way that you summarize. It's so succinct. But I feel like maybe someone who's watching, they might be like, that's really hard. Like, it's really hard not to take a comment personally. Like, it's really hard because the company, the content, everything is me, is us. Right? Like, we're putting ourselves out there. So one thing that I've done, not even, like, strategically, it's just been how I approached it, is that I've also been, like, very honest with our audience. And I've. I've been kind of saying throughout it, like, hey, guys, like, I'm new to this.
Courtney Johnson
Like, FYI.
Jean Luo
Or, like, I've just been, like, FYI, I've never been on camera ever before doing Tiger Sisters, like, this is a huge leap for me. Like, I'm really putting myself out there, and I'm being very, like, vulnerable, and, like, I'm still nervous about it all the time. So, like, just let you guys know, like, you're on this journey with me. So I think that has been helpful. And it's also been helpful for me because I get. I see people who are, like, really supportive, and they're like, jean, like, you did great. I'm like, thanks, guys.
Sheree Brooke
Well, people respond to that. I think it shows a level of vulnerability when you're creating content, even when you're putting your personal brand out there. It's just like, I think a lot of things we see on LinkedIn feel very polished and on Instagram. Right. Like, everyone only shows the highlights, but with Tiger Sisters, we take people behind the scenes where Jean's just like, hey,
Jean Luo
like, I don't know how I'm doing.
Sheree Brooke
Like, I'm trying my best.
Jean Luo
Yeah.
Sheree Brooke
And then people, like, it makes you feel more human because Jean's a human. She has feelings, is vulnerable, and please don't say mean things about her on the Internet.
Courtney Johnson
No, be nice, please.
Jean Luo
You know what I mean?
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. I mean, but that's really helpful. So you're. You're not. Not putting yourselves out there as, like, we've got it all figured out. Look at us. We're so perfect. No, you're like, actually we up on this thing. Yeah. I don't know what I'm doing in this area. We need y' all's help. Like, you have the humility to ask for support, ask for feedback, to be vulnerable. And in turn, that creates a lot of loyalty from your audience. That creates a lot of connection with your audience.
Sheree Brooke
Absolutely. Yeah.
Jean Luo
Yeah. And that's kind of like the whole premise behind Tiger Sisters. Like a lot of times we say, you know, we tell you guys about all the mistakes and all the fuck ups we've done so that you don't have to repeat it. So just like learn from us and all the things we've done that are wrong so that you can do it. Right.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. I think for our audience, like what to take away from this is if you're not perfect at something, if you feel like you don't have this perfect life or this perfect skill set or whatever, you can talk about that. You can say, hey, I'm learning pottery and I'm not great at pottery, but come with me to my first class as I it up right there. We don't have to wait till we're perfect to start posting. If you feel called world to building a personal brand. You don't have to wait until you have this certain credential. You don't have to wait until you feel totally ready on camera because you know, it's probably 500 repetitions that now you feel comfortable on camera that you wouldn't have gotten to had you waited till you were ready.
Jean Luo
Yeah. Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
So for some inspiration to our audience, I love to ask our guests, what are some opportunities that have come from your personal brand? Like maybe it's meeting someone, maybe it's getting to speak on a certain stage. Like, what are some of the cool career highlights? You're like, that was awesome.
Jean Luo
I have one. I think this is a, this is not like a specific opportunity. But I think in general, one thing I've been so amazed by and feel so grateful for is just us doing this new career. Having this new company has opened us up to this entire new world of people who are incredibly talented in different ways than I have ever experienced. Right. So my background is that I worked in finance. I worked in tech for my entire entire life. And there are so many people in those areas that are like so singularly genius in town in finance and tech ways. But now we get to interact with people like you, with other creators, with people who are just so passionate and like amazing at their craft. And I love it. Like, I get so much energy and inspiration from all these new people that we get to interact with. It's like, it's like opening up a whole new universe. Like, I'm like, I didn't even know this existed. I can't believe all these people are out there in the world and now we get to, to collaborate with them, we get to work with them. They are our peers. So that's been really exciting for me because I feel like we have, like, I have a whole new life now. This is like, it's just so cool to me. It's really intellectually interesting and also just creatively so inspiring.
Courtney Johnson
That's amazing.
Sheree Brooke
Yeah. And I guess I would echo to just say that the people that we're working with are so talented. And you said like, zone of genius. It's really, really fun to work with people who have a different zone of geni than you do because then everything just comes together and then, you know, an amalgamation and the end product is not what I would have imagined. But it's also like so inspiring and also very satisfying. I think when Jean and I both work in the corporate world, you're just around very similar types of zone of genius and that can be very like insulated. And so just for us, because we're huge nerds and like, curious about the world outside of the one that we inhabit. It's just fun working with so many different types of people.
Courtney Johnson
That's amazing. When you guys started Tiger Sisters, was it just you too? Or was there a point where, like, what was the point where you started to be like, we need to outsource some things, we need to bring on some more support.
Sheree Brooke
It was just us two until very recently. Yes.
Courtney Johnson
You guys were editing and everything?
Sheree Brooke
Oh yeah.
Courtney Johnson
Oh my gosh.
Sheree Brooke
I was editing, doing. I'm still doing the social media, all the clips and all that stuff. So very recently, over the past few months, months, like right before the holidays, Gene and I started building our team, starting to delegate and bring people in, which has been huge for us. But also like, I'm really proud of how far we've come, just the two of us, because it speaks to our very startup and scrappy nature.
Jean Luo
Right.
Sheree Brooke
We are completely self funded. We don't have any invest outside investment. We're bootstrapped. And with that in mind, we're like, how can we make it with just the two of us and use our skill set and be kind of a jack of all trades? And I think that really works because. Because in order for us, this is our philosophy. To build a successful company, we want to be able to do all parts of the pipeline, all parts of the process. Maybe not to the most talented degree, but at least we can touch all parts of the process and know what we're asking for when we do hire someone to do that. Does that make sense?
Courtney Johnson
Yeah, totally.
Sheree Brooke
Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. You want to understand the process first?
Sheree Brooke
Absolutely.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. How has that shift into leadership, Ben?
Sheree Brooke
It's fun. It's just the two of us before, so now I'm like, yay, we have co workers now. And. And honestly, kind of like we were saying, people who have a different zone of genius than us. It's really refreshing and it's nice. It feels like the company is growing. Yeah. And we have more time and freedom to zoom out a bit and think strategically about where we see Tiger Sisters going in the next year. Five years, and like, honestly, like 10 years.
Courtney Johnson
Where. Where do you see it going in the next one, five, ten years? Like, what's the ten year. What's the ten year plan? Tiger Sisters take over the world.
Sheree Brooke
World?
Jean Luo
Pretty much.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Sheree Brooke
Pretty much.
Jean Luo
There's. There's a lot. I mean, it's actually funny because we used to be kind of bashful about sharing our aspirations and our goals for Tiger Sisters because we were kind of like, oh, like, our vision is, like, too big. Like, if we put it out there, people are going to be like, that's not going to happen. Like, lol. But now we're. We, like, say it pretty proudly like we want to. So our goal is to empower and uplift the lives of 1 billion women.
Courtney Johnson
Hell, yeah. Oh, my God. Why not? 3.5 billion.
Sheree Brooke
Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
There you go.
Sheree Brooke
I like that. Exactly.
Courtney Johnson
Yes, I am.
Jean Luo
We're all the same level this, same wavelength. With that in mind, there's so many things we want to do. So we're working. We're about to start working on a book proposal. We are thinking, like, when we. When we talk to people, we're like, why not Tiger Sisters the musical?
Courtney Johnson
Yes. Oh, my God. I mean, Trisha Paytas got a musical.
Jean Luo
Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
Why can't you?
Sheree Brooke
Why not us?
Jean Luo
I mean, we personally love musicals, so there's just so many things out there that we are personally just really interested in. And we think there's so many ways to reach people with helpful but also fun and entertaining content that we're kind of like, the sky's the limit. And I think the other thing that's kind of funny is that speaking of, like, pivoting and, like, having no ego with ideas, we originally Conceptualized Tiger Sisters as a reality TV show.
Courtney Johnson
Oh, love. You're like, like, living your life, and you're like, wait, someone should be filming this.
Jean Luo
But, like, what happened is that. So we put together this entire deck, which of course we did, because we worked in corporate and we shopped it around in Hollywood, and, like, two things were. Were happening. One, it was like five different strikes were happening at the same time. And then two, the feedback we got was like, hey, like, this is a great idea, but, like, you guys are respectfully nobodies. So, like, we're not gonna do. We're not gonna do a reality show with you guys. So that was when we were like, huh. Okay, this is interesting. Like, we need to pivot. What can we do that helps us get our information out there and get ourselves out there and help people right away with the lowest barrier of entry? And we're like, okay, we'll just film ourselves at the kitchen table. We'll just do a video podcast. So that was kind of like the start of everything. But the reason I mentioned that is I'm like, we'll go back to the reality show in the future.
Courtney Johnson
We can produce one.
Jean Luo
We don't even have to be in it.
Courtney Johnson
Exactly. I mean, you're creating a whole media company so you can produce one. That's really interesting, because how I started with personal brands is I manage personal brands for tech founders. And the amount of people that would come to me saying, saying, I went to this vc, I'm fundraising right now, and they told me, you're a nobody. Go build your personal brand and come back. That's how I got all my clients. Like, it's crazy. Not only are people not going to give you reality TV if you're a nobody, they might not fund your startup. They might not. I mean, they're not going to accept your book proposal. Right? Like, a personal brand is so important, because if they're going to put money into producing your TV show or your movie or your book or whatever, they gotta know that you have some sort of proof of concept. And obviously, you'll have such a strong proof of concept now for your relationship, your personal brands, your. Your audience. And I love what you're saying because you're saying if you have this dream, your dream of producing a film, of making a musical, of starting a reality TV show, writing that book, of creating whatever art you want to create or starting that company or whatever, or what is the minimum viable product? Like, how can you start with a couple hundred bucks in a couple hours if that Thing isn't working. And how can you take baby steps? So for our audience, that dream that you have, what is the mvp? Like, how can you start that? And I think that's really cool. And oh, my God, a reality TV show is coming all his way. And we'll talk about book. Cause I have a great book agent that's career book focused. Love that. I just wrote a career book.
Sheree Brooke
Congrats.
Courtney Johnson
So fun. Huge. Y' all are gonna love it.
Jean Luo
Incred.
Courtney Johnson
It's quite the journey. But I wouldn't have gotten a book deal had I not had a personal brand. Obviously. There you go. Speaking of, why do you think so many people From Ivy Leagues, MBAs, more elite career paths are starting to build their personal brands?
Sheree Brooke
I mean, the idea of a personal brand has always existed, but now with the rise of, like, digital media on Instagram, TikTok, it can. LinkedIn, it can take the form of so many different channels, and people are realizing that the personal brand outside of just like the company that you work for is so important to open up so many other doors. Because, like, when I left LinkedIn, like, what is my personal brand if all I've done is work at this one company and it's tied to, I don't know, this one company? And so I think the power of visibility cannot be overstated. Understated. It is understated, but, like, if no one knows all the great work that you're doing, it's really hard to get that promotion, to get that opportunity. So. So I don't think people are thinking about visibility enough, whether they're working at a company or they're starting their own company. Like, so many more opportunities become available to you when you talk more about yourself and build your personal brand.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. When you're talking about promotion, something I think our audience gets to understand too, is, like, personal brand. Yes, it can be external, it can be public, but it also can be internal. Right. It could be how you're showing up on Slack. It could be your email signature. It could be the way that you're advocating for your work in internal communications. Like, you can start to build those skills of, I like to say, working loudly, even if you're not posting publicly. Did you all do any of that in your. Your careers?
Jean Luo
Yeah.
Sheree Brooke
I mean, a lot. You. You have to. Because, like, when you're working at a company and you want to get promoted and there are, like, different steps to promotion, like, you have to take a look and be like, what? The work that I'm doing, does it speak for Itself, you kind of have to be able to talk about it.
Courtney Johnson
It never speaks for itself. Right. Ever. Like, no one's going in your Google Drive and being like, this is really good.
Jean Luo
Ye one tactical way that for if people who are watching are like, oh, that feels cringe. That feels embarrassing. I don't feel comfortable, like, singing my own praises. One thing I used to do because I felt that way for a very, very long time throughout my career, which honestly probably held me back. But one thing I did do and I felt comfortable with doing is that I was the leader of many teams. So then what I would do is I would talk about all the different people on the teams and what they did that was amazing and how they contributed to the overall achievement achievements. And then I could be like, look at what we achieved together. This is what this person did. This is what this person did. Congratulations to the entire team. So that's a kind of a way to sort of, like, ease into it and, like, talk about your achievements without being like, I'm so amazing. Look what I did. It's more like, look what we did together.
Sheree Brooke
Yeah, I have another tactical idea.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Sheree Brooke
So you just made me think of this. But, like, something that I did when I was working in corporate was that I created a folder, and it was just between my boss and me, who was very supportive and wanted me to get promoted, but I also needed to bring him, like, the proof points. So anytime that I got an email where someone was like, this is really great work, especially if it was someone from another team or someone who's more senior than I was, was like, cherie, this is great work. Or like, I got, you know, an email from my design partner who's like, this has been the best partnership ever. I would take a screenshot of that and I put it into what I called a wins folder so that I would have a record. And it seems, like, annoying to do do, like, in the moment. But then when you're getting promoted, you have, like, a year's worth of, like, history and proof points to be like, this is why I should be promoted. Because other people that I'm working with believe that I should be. And look at. Look at all this value that I'm delivering.
Jean Luo
That is such a good. That's such good advice. Because as someone who's written promotion packets, like, if I had that at the ready, then it's so much easier to advocate for my direct rapport. And then the other thing is, you know, all the people who have complimented them before, so then you can go and talk to those people, especially if they're in the room where they're discussing the promotion. And you can be like, hey, I know you really enjoyed working with Sheree or whoever it is. Can you back me up in the room?
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Sheree Brooke
Because it's actually like, in. If you don't do this wins folder, it is just really hard in the moment to like, pick out examples, testimonials, and all these proof points while you're like, oh, what did I do? Oh, that project maybe was like 2/4 ago. I think it did. It did really well. But, like, how do I show that? That, like, if you're doing it in the moment and you keep track on a wins folder, it makes it easier for yourself and for your boss, who, if they are supportive, like, wants to put you up.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. Shameless plug. For our listeners, creating a wins folder is a cheat code in my book. So I love that. Pre order career cheat codes right now.
Sheree Brooke
Pre order right now, right now.
Jean Luo
Right Meow.
Courtney Johnson
I think another great, great thing about a wins folder is anytime you're feeling discouraged and you're starting to get imposter syndrome, you can go back and see, see all of the amazing outcomes that you've created, all the amazing compliments that you've got. Because it's so easy to have one loss, same thing is like, so easy to get one negative comment and be like, oh, my God, we suck. So to be in your career, to be feeling like, discouraged, feeling like you're not, you're not doing what you should be doing, you're not where you should be at, not that there's any place you should be at, to go back and revisit that is really powerful.
Jean Luo
Powerful.
Courtney Johnson
I love that. Yeah. It's so good.
Sheree Brooke
It's actually taken a new form now with Tiger Sisters. We don't call it a wins folder, but the name of the folder which we have now is called why I do what I Do. And it has the comments that Jean talked about of the people who are like, your content has helped me get promoted. It's changed my life. I've made a career move. I've made a physical location move because of your content. So we still have a wins folder, but we call it something different now. And it does provide that purpose where it's like, like on the days where it's not like rainbows and unicorns and we're like, oh, man, this is really, really hard. It's really amazing to return back to the people and why we do what we do.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. For our listeners like, you can have that. That impact. Anybody can have that impact. Because if you guys were to stay scared or insecure and say, we're not going to post at all, we're not going to make a podcast, we're not going to educate other women like you, you clearly have this mission on your heart of. Of impacting a billion women. But if you were to let the fear be bigger than that mission and vision, you would kind of be robbing all of those women of getting that job, moving to a different place, getting that promotion, like, all of those things in the why you do what you do folder. And I really want that to land with our audience, that there is something on your heart. There is a. You are meant to impact millions or billions of people in the world. And if you look, let the fear be bigger than your mission, you're kind of robbing them of those outcomes, of those amazing wins, of what you're meant to contribute to the world. Yeah.
Jean Luo
I think the other sort of perspective I can provide is that I was watching Sheree while she was doing her influencer and creator career and, like, in the background, because she was also doing a lot of product management content. And I was a product manager for a long time. And sometimes, honestly, when she was putting her content out there, I would be like, that's so obvious. Like, everyone knows that. Like, oh, like, that's nice. But, like, everyone knows that. But no, people don't know information that you have in your head. So, like, speaking to the audience, there's so much stuff that is like your special sauce that you don't even realize it. And unless you put it out there, people can't benefit from it. And this is like, my direct experience of, like, watching Sheree having done it. And I was like, oh, that's obvious. But no, it's not. People would write in comments, oh, my God. I'd never heard of this before. I never knew what this finance term was like. Thank you so much. I use this in conversation. I use this in my interview. And so then after that, I was like, oh, wow, this is truly valuable. We should be putting what we know out there into the world.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah, that's really, really important. Cause you're right. A big hesitation for people to build their personal brands is, well, everybody knows this thing. Well, everybody knows this one fitness niche, whatever. Everybody knows how to do this with pottery technique, whatever it might be. No, everybody does not know that.
Jean Luo
Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
And really, the goal is to teach people a couple of steps behind you. So there was a time where you didn't know that thing. Right. You don't have to have the most qualifications and be at the top of the ladder to teach others. Just teach the version of you one or two or three years ago.
Jean Luo
Yeah. I think the other interesting thing is that people don't realize off the bat is that your lived experience and your perspective is really valuable and unique. So one thing we've been surprised by is that we, we had always created Tiger Sisters with the intention that we're mostly speaking to, like, our peers or people who are younger than us. But one thing we've noticed is that there's a really strong contingent of our community that is actually older people who have kids that are in high school or college or, like, just a little bit younger than us, but, like, way younger than them, obviously. And they kind of use us as the bridge of, like, how do we talk to our teenagers? How do we talk to our college students? And so that has been like this realization that we've been like, whoa, whoa. Yeah, like, that is so cool. Like, it almost like, brings a tear to my eye.
Sheree Brooke
It's kind of like an unexpected audience that we were like, wait, we didn't realize that we were reaching, like the 45 plus community.
Jean Luo
Yeah, like 40, like, people. People have come up to us. Like, people are like, yeah, FYI, I'm a 59 year old man. I don't think I'm in your audience, but I love your content because I use it to speak to my. My high school daughter.
Courtney Johnson
You're literally facilitating connections between people and their kids. This is so wholesome. Oh, my God, I love that. That's. What an incredible win. Wow. What do you guys think a misconception is when it comes to your personal brand?
Sheree Brooke
Ooh. I think, I mean, it goes to what Jean was speaking earlier. I think when you look at our resume, it looks very, I guess, on the right track, But I think behind that, that's something that Jean and I have been trying to share and break down. I mean, that's kind of what Tiger Sisters is, is like, yes, we did do this, you know, track of going to the school, working at the company and now, you know, supporting ourselves. I think breaking down that image because it looks that way on LinkedIn, it looks that way on Instagram, but we really want to show people the behind the scenes of, like, what it took to get there. And also, like, it's not perfect. Like, we. We're not perfect. We've made so many mistakes along the way. We've been rejected many times. Like, our reality TV show and countless other times before that. And so I think a misconception is that, like, it looks very glossy and we want to break that. That's like one of our goals is to break up that misconception.
Jean Luo
So one thing I think that we haven't really talked about and we want to talk about more is that, that for me personally, at every point in my career, for every job that I've taken, I have never been the most qualified person on paper. So, like, for my first job out of school, working at Goldman Sachs, I didn't even know how to use Excel. Like, which, when you think about it, is insane. I'm like, why did they even hire me? But what I realized is that I was never the best at financial models and doing all of that stuff, which you would think would be like the core skills of the job job. But I was an amazing writer. And another really big part of my job was writing all these like 60, 70, 80 page investment memos that we would have to then bring into the investment committee and like defend and like, you know, argue about why we should make an investment. And then same thing for my next job, getting into product management. I did not have a computer science degree, and that was 99% of people who were getting product management jobs at the time. But I had all these other skills from my previous experience. Experience. So I think one thing that, like, we're really realizing now is, and we want to share with the audience is like, play to your strengths and never count yourself out. Especially for women. Historically, women are much more hesitant to put themselves up for positions or promotions or job applications compared to men, even when they are more qualified than the same men who are applying.
Courtney Johnson
When did you guys start to think about monetization in your personal brands?
Sheree Brooke
Well, for Tiger Sisters, we made the very intentional decision to not monetize the podcast for about a year. And that was because Jean and I in the first year were like, we want to get the foundations right of our podcast. And with that in mind, we want to have all the right, like, incentives, which is to listen to our audience provide content of value. And once you, like, bring monetization in the fold, it can be distracting. And so we spent the first year being, being like, focusing on the content, making it great, focusing on the writing, focusing on the editing and the quality of all that stuff. And when we felt ready, about a year in, we also had the proof points. Like we said before, we're like, our show is rocking. It's doing such a good job. And then at that point, so many companies wanted to be on our podcast because we had example to show for it.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. Do you think some creators monetize too soon?
Sheree Brooke
Soon, I think it can be hard because once you have the focus of monetization and the pressure, things can change. Right. So I think Gene and I are really fortunate because we did this very strategically where we Both, Gene had 15 years working in corporate saving up money. I worked for five years saving up money. And like, together we were able to create a Runway of like, we have a plan to see if this can work for this amount of time. And so being very strategic. Strategic with that so we don't have to take the money. I think if you have the pressure of needing to monetize or needing to take the money from a brand that might not even align with your message or your own values, that's, I think, where people tend to go wrong when things don't align with. But they need the money. I think that can be really tough.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah. So the cheat code here is we are giving ourselves a buy. Well, when it's. This has got to work in a year, so we're going all in on it in the next 12 months. We're making it work no matter what. And that could be. I mean, it forces commitment. It really forced commitment from you guys that you're gonna figure it the out, right?
Jean Luo
Yeah. And I think also when it comes to looking at the types of collaborators or partnerships we wanted to bring on, we were also super intentional about. About that. So in terms of waiting a full year, I think it was like literally one year to the date that we released our first episode that we signed a deal to. To bring in our first sponsor. And the. The sponsor was actually my friend and my old co worker David Shim, who had started this company called Read AI. And we had also interviewed him on like three seasons before. So it was all very like, organic, where it was something where. Where we're like, oh, our audience is familiar with this guy and like, they know how amazing he is. They know his backstory. And I'm also really familiar with him. I trust him. I believe in his product. We use it every day. And so this is something we're proud to bring to our audience and we know it'll be helpful for people. So, like, that's something we've also been super intentional about because I think that level of trust and like curation that
Sheree Brooke
you care built and care and yeah,
Jean Luo
like a duty of care.
Sheree Brooke
I think.
Jean Luo
I think creators and influencers do have this duty of care to their audience. That is like a very fragile thing and is very. It's very. It's very delicate. Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
What do you guys see as the future of personal brand?
Sheree Brooke
I think more people. It's kind of what you were saying before, like, your role for helping, like, tech leaders, tech execs, founders build personal brand. I think people are just really scared right now to put themselves out there, and it's starting to change a little bit, especially in the professional world. But I think, I think my dream is that, like, Jean and I have this podcast where we talk about money, power and love and business. But I think there. There's so much white space, blank space for there to be like hundreds of other podcasts out there that specifically open up gatekept institutions and practices. Things that Jean and I are not familiar with. But, like, I think I don't know anything about, like the medicine world, but I know it's really competitive and really hard, and it's hard to break in. And when should you. You apply to these schools and do you need the mcat and what scores do you need? And I think that information is becoming more readily available out there. But the more information that's out there, I think the more opportunities can open up for other people. So my hope is that, you know, the data scientists out there start talking about how they got their data scientist job. Like, did they need to get a grad school degree, did they need a PhD and how do they break in? Because I think a lot of people are hungry and curious to learn about these roles, but not enough people. People in those roles are speaking about them candidly.
Courtney Johnson
I'm super fucking passionate about this. It's why I wrote my book, this is why I started this podcast. Because we have so much inequity in our world. And I feel like the one thing that I can help people with is giving them information and un. Gatekeeping information. And I just know what I know. I know the path of tech startups, marketing for tech startups. I know the path of the creator path, and that's what I can un. Gatekeep. You guys know a different path. And what you're saying, saying is also we want people from the medicine path and the legal path. We want people from the path of, I don't know, being a mom and the path of all these things to un. Gatekeep this information. I truly, truly think un gatekeeping information can bring so much more equity to our world. It is absolutely insane. I. I was at a retreat recently here in LA and One of the girls at the retreat, she was born in a village in the Philippines. And through YouTube she learned how to be a vegan VA. Now she has a tech startup. Now she's worth millions and millions of dollars. All because some one person decided to put out a YouTube channel to teach her how to become a VA and then how to scale that into a business. And because somebody un gatekeeped that path, she is living her dream. It's just one example, one friend there are, you guys know dozens and dozens of people so do I that have. Have similar paths of wish. Without other people on gatekeeping shit, they would not have opportunities. And I think there's these like A players and B players in the world. And this is, this is what my book is about. The A players, they come from families who were in the corporate world or they were entrepreneurs. I didn't come from that. I had to learn it on my own. I was a B player. And the whole book is how can B players learn from A players? This ungate kept career information. And it's more about psychology of career and relationships and power. But I just, I'm going on a tangent, but I'm just really passionate about that and I, I love that you guys share.
Jean Luo
Totally comes through. And it's so funny. This is something that we really share, we have in common because one of our sort of log lines or taglines of Tiger Sisters is information is power.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah.
Jean Luo
And we say it all the time. Like it's so powerful to have information because once you have information, you can act on it. Right. And that's something that we are also very intentional about. The guests that we bring on Tiger Sisters because they're all people that we personally are fascinated by. So we've never like reached out to people to bring them in. They've all been through friends or friends of friends where a friend of ours will be like, you have to talk to my, my really good friend. Like, there's so much to learn from them. They have to be on Tiger Sisters. And we're like, oh, okay. But that's how it's worked out best, right? Because it's some. It's all people from all different industries that you can learn from. And like we get lots of like crazy. Like we had the former director of the nsa, Admiral Mike Rogers on Tiger.
Sheree Brooke
He's a homie. Yeah, he's real homie. He's hilarious.
Jean Luo
He's actually so funny. And it's like having access to that type of information is our entire goal to provide that for Everyone.
Courtney Johnson
It's so beautiful. And, Jean, what's your prediction for future of creators?
Jean Luo
I think what's really interesting. I don't know if this is a fully formed thought or a thesis yet, but I think what's really interesting is that you see a lot of companies now, like, corporations, who are trying to become more like the voice of a creator, right? So, like, starting with Duolingo and then all these other companies that are trying to connect directly with audiences in a way that a creator or, like, an individual brand might be. So it's almost. And then on the other side, you see a lot of creators, like people like us, who are building not just individual creator, like, careers, but an entire corporation, like an entire empire based on their creator sort of like personalities and what they know. So it's almost like we're entering a world where there's this synthesis of, like, companies and corporations are becoming personal brands, and then personal brands are becoming companies and corporations, and it's all sort of synthesizing to one.
Courtney Johnson
I hear what you're saying. So companies are seeing the value of creator, and they're bringing in that strategy, that feeling, that brand experience. And then creators see monetization and structure and longevity of corporations. Say, I want that. So it's all kind of meshing. Yeah. Together.
Jean Luo
Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
That's really cool. Okay, one last question for y'. All. Do you have a ultimate crazy dream podcast cast?
Jean Luo
Oh, let's.
Courtney Johnson
We're manifesting it right now. We're. We're big again. We're. We're influencing 4 billion women, and we're having some crazy people on the pod.
Sheree Brooke
Well, so I guess Amy Poehler from Good.
Jean Luo
Hey, that's such a good one.
Sheree Brooke
Recently won the Golden Globes for best podcast, which, you know, is iconic because this is the first year that the Golden Globes had this category. And I think a lot of, you know, on the surface, Tiger Sisters and Amy Poehler's Good Hang might not seem like there's a lot of overlap, but I think just like watching or listening to her podcast, we do have very similar goals where she makes people happy with her good hang. She invites on these guests she's had. She has these. These really thoughtful and hilarious conversations, and the audience is listening, laughing, feeling good, learning, and that's the energy that we want to bring with Tiger Sisters as well.
Jean Luo
Yeah, I love that one. I think another one for us is Oprah Winfrey. Just because she's the goat and because we grew up with her and seeing the impact that she's had on not just individual people, but like, for generations to come. Right. Like, people now, now parent differently because they grew up watching her content and that's affecting the next generation. So, like, that sort of intergenerational, like, influence for the better is something that we really aspire to. And having her on would be just the ultimate, I guess, honor. Yeah. There's so much to learn from her.
Courtney Johnson
When y' all have Amy and Oprah on the podcast, you can stitch this.
Sheree Brooke
Yeah.
Courtney Johnson
So good.
Sheree Brooke
Hi, Amy.
Courtney Johnson
Hi, Oprah.
Sheree Brooke
K. This is great.
Jean Luo
This is manifesting.
Courtney Johnson
We are.
Jean Luo
I love it.
Courtney Johnson
It's happening. It's already in the works. It's done. It's done.
Jean Luo
We said it out loud.
Courtney Johnson
Said it out loud. Well, thank you guys so much for coming on the pod. You guys are incredible. This is such a great conversation. Really fun. Thanks for hanging in LA and I can't wait to see in Austin. This was a good way.
Sheree Brooke
Exactly.
Courtney Johnson
Amazing. Thank you, guys.
Sheree Brooke
Oh, wait, wait.
Courtney Johnson
Before we go, where can people listen? Find. Follow you guys.
Sheree Brooke
Okay, yes. So number one, you can listen to or watch Tiger sisters on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. The Tiger Sisters podcast, you can find us on instagram @tiger sisterspodcast. And then my personal Instagram is Cherie. C H E R I E dot Brooke. And that's me on Instagram.
Jean Luo
And mine is Jean Lou. Underscore. J E A N L U O underscore score.
Sheree Brooke
And also find us on LinkedIn.
Courtney Johnson
Yeah, hit us up on LinkedIn.
Jean Luo
Yeah, follow me on LinkedIn.
Courtney Johnson
Our. Our listeners love LinkedIn.
Sheree Brooke
Oh, great.
Courtney Johnson
Amazing. Thank you guys.
Sheree Brooke
Thank you so much, Courtney.
Courtney Johnson
I do have an ask for you guys before we go. If this podcast has benefited you in any way, if you have gotten a tip that you've really loved and you've implemented it, if it's given you some sort of inspiration, if it's given you some sort of motivation or clarity, my ask is that you leave a five star review. I would appreciate it so much. If it helps spread the message, it really helps the show grow and it helps more people get access to this information. My deepest desire is un gatekeeping shit. I want to un gatekeep information. So anybody that desires to build a personal brand, to build a business, to create this success in their life and to live their dream, I want them to have all of the information and I don't hold shit back on the show. Okay, we are not holding shit back. So in order to get this message to more people, in order to get these resources and, and tips to more people, your reviews go a long way. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.
Host: Courtney Johnson
Guests: Sheree Brooke & Jean Luo, co-hosts of Tiger Sisters Podcast
Date: April 7, 2026
In this episode, Courtney sits down with Sheree and Jean, the sister-duo behind Tiger Sisters, a meteoric #1 business podcast. They discuss their leap from traditional, prestigious careers (Stanford MBA, Goldman Sachs, tech, consulting) into building a wildly successful personal brand and media company in just 18 months. The conversation dives deep into demystifying the transition from the corporate world to public content creation, the value of visibility, iterative growth, audience feedback, humility, and the mission of democratizing career and life information—especially for women. Listeners get actionable takeaways on overcoming visibility fears, building in public, and leveraging content for massive impact.
"Our goal is to empower and uplift the lives of 1 billion women."
– Jean Luo ([00:00], [23:45])
"If no one knows all the great work that you're doing, it's really hard to get that promotion, to get that opportunity."
– Sheree Brooke ([00:11], [27:27])
"Your fear of looking cringe... is just holding you back from whatever you want to do."
– Sheree Brooke ([06:32])
"Cat videos do not pop off. But I have some, you know, insight or some education that other people don't have that I can share."
– Sheree Brooke ([09:59])
"It's almost like our community is our co-producers of Tiger Sisters."
– Jean Luo ([14:58])
On personal brand after leaving a company:
"When I left LinkedIn, what is my personal brand if all I've done is work at this one company?"
– Sheree Brooke ([27:27])
On information equity:
"We have so much inequity in our world and I feel like the one thing I can help people with is un gatekeeping information."
– Courtney Johnson ([00:04], [44:10])
Advice for aspiring creators:
"Don’t wait till you’re perfect to start posting."
– Courtney Johnson ([18:27])
“Information is power. Once you have information, you can act on it.”
– Jean Luo ([46:17])
“If you let the fear be bigger than your mission, you’re robbing the people you could help.”
– Courtney Johnson ([33:14])